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Wwii Essay, Research Paper

World War I was
to end all wars. The people of that generation truly believed that
the aftermath of WWI had been destructive and painful for everyone.
However, within almost thirty years racism, hatred and a man by the
name of Hitler, who will remain one of the most ruthless men in
history, sprung into existence like a vicious serpent. Even today his
name alone is spine chilling and puts fear in people s hearts. He
spread his poisonous venom (anti Semitism) and killed millions of
people including

6 000 000 Jews.
He was the very essence of Nazism. Terror was present in each of the
countries under Nazi domination. Poland was the setting of the
holocaust. The Nazis, with their white supremacist mentality, brought
forth the German Nazi decreed and hatred toward the Jews: You have no
right to live. Why? Many factors contributed to why Hitler despised
the Jewish race. The Jews not the Romans were blamed for the
crucifixion of Christ, they were labeled as greedy, and they were
blamed for Germany s loss in WWI. Hitler attempted to create the
ideal German nation and anyone with imperfections, Jewish people
included, was reduced to all that was bad and immoral. Hitler was
full of hatred and vengeance against the Jewish race. He developed a
method of control called the ghetto . This is where most of the
Jewish people were forced to reside. The ghettos were sealed and
often surrounded with barbed wire or walls. Jewish men, women and
children were not allowed to leave the ghetto without authorization.
Their businesses, their homes, even their values, hopes, and dreams
were taken away from them and they believed that these were truly the
worst living conditions they would possibly encounter. They were
later placed in concentration camps, humiliated, laughed at,
tortured, and burned in cremation ovens for no apparent reason other
than hatred. The Holocaust experience must be taught and explained to
the younger generations so it is never repeated. In both novels,
Schindler s List and Night, the authors vividly portrayed the Jewish
people s fears, pain, and emotional suffering during the Holocaust.
Although most of their family members were killed and the reasons to
stay alive were minimal, their hope to survive never died. The ounce
of hope they had left allowed them to continue until the end where
they became liberated

History books
tell us that not all Germans believed in Hitler s dictatorial Final
Solution . Most Germans were frightened and threatened that if they
tried to provide hiding places for Jews or were accomplices in trying
to help them escape, they would be killed. Even though these threats
and punishments existed, human compassion, love and respect for human
beings in general, regardless of race, overpowered Hitler s hatred.
People like Oskar Schindler and many others truly believed in the
power of love, respect of others and the equal treatment of human
kind. Schindler says to Stern a Jew I value your opinion (Schindler s
List 76), which was extremely rare and dangerous at the time. All
human beings must be treated with respect and dignity, but during the
horrors of the Holocaust, many stories, verbal and written, clearly
revealed the pain and suffering of the Jewish people. Both novels,
Schindler s List and Night, vividly describe, in detail, the endless
pain and anguish of the Jewish people. The horror of the conditions
of the concentration camps was an image of hungry, weak men, women
and children, entering the gates of hell, wondering if they would
ever come out alive or if their bodies will be converted into piles
of anonymous powdered ash (Eban 57). In Night, Wiesel says, I shall
never forget that night, the first night in the camp, which has
turned my life into one long night. ( Night 32). The one long night
is a powerful image identifying the sense of the darkness, the
torture, and constant agony that his life was full of as a result of
the nights he spent there. Judy Cohen, a holocaust survivor, also
described her constant companions in the concentration camp as the
fear of death, fear of hunger and the fear of losing loves ones.
Anticipation of who died next was another fear. Who will be the next
to enter the burning flames of hell the ovens the weak, the sick, or
an innocent child? And that smell in the air they would question Was
it my family or someone else s? And did it matter? The smell of
burning human flesh was so strong that it was a constant reminder
that faith and hope for survival were nowhere near.

This loss of
faith and hope came in two different forms during the holocaust
physical and emotional deterioration. The physical pain that these
victims were subjected to by the Nazi regime was too terrible for
even the hardest men to bear (Eban 59). They were treated like cargo
tossed from one place to the next beaten, whipped, burned, stamped,
and delivered to be exterminated with strangers (Eban 59). These
people s emotional heartache was greater than their physical torment.
Historical and war literature, along with movies, revealed these
innocent people s fears, hopes, dreams and emotional anguish they
encountered. However unless one listens to a Holocaust survivor, such
as Mrs. Cohen, one could not conceive the emotional and physical
distress that occurred during the holocaust. When one listened to
Mrs. Cohen, he/she sees the emotional scars, even after fifty years
of rehabilitation. The loss of her loved ones, including her mother
brought tears to her eyes and she wishes she had had the opportunity
to say goodbye to her. She was selected and taken away from her
family within seconds. The closest she ever got to her mother after
that point was every time she took a breath of the smoke filled air
coming from the furnaces.

Although many
were killed during this horrifying ordeal, many survived because of
their faith and hope. Some survived because of luck, others because
of the help of some courageous people. Oskar Schindler was a hero to
6 000 Jews. Schindler gave people hope. He reassured people that not
everyone was evil and cruel, and most importantly, that Jews were not
to blame. He allowed Jewish families to stay together, he allowed
workers to practice religion, and he even kissed a Jewish girl on her
birthday, which he was arrested for shortly after. Regina Perlman, a
Jew living in the city on forged papers, believed it essential that
she get her parents into Schindler s backyard camp. (Schindler s List
204). All of these factors were a great contribution to people s
strength and will to survive. But, what about those who survived
without Schindler? Judy Cohen was one of them. Mrs. Cohen was
separated from her entire family and was sent to a concentration camp
all alone at the tender age of 16. Although Judy was young and
afraid, she found her own will to survive. She asked two other girls
in her camp if they would be camp sisters with her. As their
relationship progressed, Judy and her camp sisters developed a bond,
similar to that between biological sisters. That bond is what kept
Judy going. She had someone who cared and encouraged her and in the
end, she survived. However, Mrs. Cohen and the Schindler survivors
were dependent on others for their hope and encouragement to survive,
however, Wiesel was not. Wiesel had his father s encouragement by his
side for a long time but his father died before they were liberated.
Wiesel was only a teen then. He was extremely affected by the events
during that time and had lost all faith in God. Where is God now?
(Night 62), he questioned. After his father died he had no reason to
live, leaving his life in the hands of fate, I have nothing to say of
my life during this period. It no longer mattered. After my father s
death nothing could touch me any more.

Wiesel, a
holocaust survivor, who is presently a professor at the University in
Boston, wrote the Nobel Prize winning novel Night to narrate his
experience in order to educate future generations about the
terrifying effects of racism and hatred. It stresses how important it
is to love our neighbor. Unfortunately the future doesn t look much
brighter, according to Judy Cohen. The venom hasn t completely washed
away. The Nazi mentality, white supremacy and anti – Semitism still
exist, but in a smaller form. Unfortunately people of the present and
future generations are not fully aware of how discrimination, taking
root in small beginnings, leads to vast and uncontrollable disaster
(Eban 61).

Since WWI did
not end all wars, let s hope that the catastrophe of WWII and the
horrors of the holocaust has taught and shown humans the ruins and
disasters of hatred. Eban states: Man is the only animal able to
transmit experience. And the transmission of experience is the
central core of education and moral progress. (60). Educating and
reminding future generations of the horrors of our past mistakes, and
the effects of our inhumane acts, is the only way to prevent history
from repeating itself.

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